I remember Nan, up to her elbows in prawn shells and lobster, sighing happily and saying, “I wonder what the rich people are up to today?” And we’d laugh, because we knew that we were rich in all the ways that really mattered.

My nonna Paolina was best known in the family for two pasta dishes – her gnocchi and her lasagne. When eating either, you were never in any doubt who had created the meal. She always told us her secret ingredient was love, but I suspect it was skill.

Growing up, garlic and olive oil were staple items in my mum’s cooking. No matter where I am in the world, the smell of freshly peeled garlic on my fingertips will always send me back to my childhood home. It also reminds me, even though I have grown up in Australia, to never forget my…

I didn’t start cooking until I got married. I had to remember the recipes that were made for me as a child. I didn’t have to ask anyone for this recipe – it was in my memory. I was always there when my grandfather would make it. He would tell me, “Sido, go get this. Sido,…

When I arrived in Australia, my wife Cath introduced me to the humble lamington and I was struck by its elegance, simplicity and, of course, flavour.

Plain cakes are the ones I grew up with. They are not only my comfort zone, but my happy place, too.